“Why you looking at my daddy?” Diante Jr asked as he came into the room and plopped on the couch right next to me.
I couldn’t stand his grown ass. He talked too much shit, and I felt like he didn’t get proper discipline. He cursed like a sailor when his parents weren’t around, and he was always fuckin’ with my shit. Just the other day, I found him flushing one of my wigs down the toilet.
“Boy, please! Ain’t nobody looking at your ugly ass daddy!” I lied, only because Ashanta was in the room and she’d heard him.
As much as I couldn’t stand this little ass boy, I had to admit that he was so damn handsome, looking just like his damn daddy. Dion was bad too, but he wasn’t as bad as his big brother. At times, he could be a little sweetheart. Even right now, he’d come over and given me a hug instead of fuckin’ with me like his older brother.
“Yeah, you was looking at my daddy. I know what I saw. Mommy, she was looking at daddy,” he kept right on.
Ashanta paid him no mind as she walked up on Diante. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he picked her up, kissing her passionately. Now that I think about it, he hadn’t kissed me. My cousin loved that man; there was no denying that. He didn’t deserve her. She was far too good of a fuckin’ woman for his ass. She was too good for me too. This woman had opened her home to me with open arms, and I repaid her by sleeping with her man.
I watched out the corner of my eye as he carried her out of the room and into the back, more than likely to do the same things to her body, plus more than he’d done to mine. I felt played. I felt like I was just a piece of pussy to him. I had to get the fuck up out of there before this shit ended badly for us both. Their son was already catching me looking at their dad, and I didn’t want the time to come when he caught me fuckin’ his dad!
Jashae Johnson
It was Saturday afternoon, and I’d just finished getting the best massage that I’d ever received in my entire life. My man had woken me up this morning, and he switched the roles on me. Instead of me being the one who gets up first each morning to make sure that I had breakfast on the table for him and Maya, he was the one who had done all of that. His breakfast didn’t taste nowhere near as good as the breakfast that I would prepare, but it was the thought that counted.
After breakfast, Miami let me know about the spa day that he’d put together for me and also told me that I didn’t have to worry about Maya because he had everything handled with her. Since I’d come back home, and Miami and I had picked back up where we left off in terms of our relationship, I swear it just felt new again. It was fresh. There was no drama, no arguing, none of that. There was still that little damper in the relationship with his father being sick, but I was there for him as much as I could be.
These days, Miami was spending a lot of his time at the hospital with his father, just soaking up all those last minutes. We’d already gotten word from the doctor that it was going to be by the grace of God if his father lived for another month. That was sad. Death was already hard to deal with in the first place but to actually have to prepare for it and count down on it, I couldn’t imagine. Then again, even when you aren’t prepared, the shit still hurts.
I was in no way, shape, or form prepared for when I lost Vonte. That right there hit me like a ton of bricks. It was still hitting me. I still had my days when I locked myself in a room and cried. I just had a breakdown yesterday at work, which no one knew about. That breakdown stemmed from me finding an old picture in my drawer of Vonte and me from when I’d brought him to my job a few years ago for Take Your Child to Work Day. Right there, in the middle of my office, with the door closed, I broke down. I thought about the child that I was carrying and how happy Vonte would have been that he had a little sibling on the way. I still couldn’t believe that I was pregnant. Lord knows I would need a refresher because I didn’t even think that I still remembered how to change a diaper.
Right now, I was sitting in a room with a few other women, and we were all in our robes after receiving our massages. There were all types of finger foods for us to snack on like fruit, cheese and crackers, and things of that nature. The way my stomach was rumbling, I could use some real food, though.
I was laid back in one of the recliner chairs with a fashion magazine in my hands. Since this wasn’t my magazine, I was using my phone to snap pictures of all the outfits that I liked, and I planned to purchase them online once I made it home.
“Jashae?” my name was called out.
She asked it in a questioning way as if she was trying to see whether or not it was me. I looked up from the magazine and peered at the woman standing before me long and hard. I honestly didn’t know how to feel about her presence. Last I had seen of her, I was bursting in her house and destroying her daughter’s room, looking for my son’s gym bag. The last time that she was spoken of, though, was when I found out from my attorney that she wished to drop all the charges that she had failed against me.
I looked at her, and because she looked a lot like Taylor, I couldn’t help but feel myself get angry as I looked at her. I wanted her out of my presence, but at the same time, a part of me wanted to know what the hell she wanted. Just like me, she was in a robe after getting a massage. From the bounciness of the curls that were in her hair, mixed with the fresh pedicure and manicure that she had, it made me believe that more than likely, she received the same spa package that I had for myself. Like a scared kid, I watched as she looked down at the floor and twiddled her fingers.
“Trust me, it isn’t easy for me to approach you like this, especially given the circumstances. You having to sit here and face me couldn’t possibly be easy. I’m the woman responsible for the girl who played a part in your son’s death. Jashae, I want you to know that from the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry for what happened to Vonte. Because of his relationship with my daughter, I got the chance to meet him a few times, and from one woman to another, you raised an exceptional son. We’re two mothers mourning the death of our babies.
“I just want you to know that the day you came into my home searching for Vonte’s bag, I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. Neither was I trying to protect my daughter, even in her death. It’s just that as a mother, I didn’t want to believe what you were accusing my daughter of. I knew my daughter; therefore, I knew the type of person who I’d raised, and never in a million years would I ever think that she would have done something like that. I should have known. The way my daughter cried over Vonte’s death, it felt too personal, you know? Only for the truth to come out and she be the cause of his demise,” she said with watery eyes.
My eyes were watery too as I nodded my head. Out of everything that she’d just said to me, I still had one question.
“Did you know that the baby your daughter was carrying didn’t belong to Vonte?” I asked.
Her eyes left mine and lingered on whatever the hell was behind me. That right there showed me everything that I needed to know in terms of an answer.
“I did. At the same time, I didn’t know the amount of secrets that my daughter was keeping until she was already gone. A shit load of stuff came out after Taylor’s death. Listen, I didn’t come over here to ruin your peace and quiet. I just couldn’t see myself walking away without speaking. Take care, Jashae,” she said right before she walked away.
My eyes stayed on her until she rounded the corner and walked out of the double doors. It wasn’t even her who I was mad at, but she and I could never be friends. There was far too much resentment in my heart for her child, even in her death, so I couldn’t be friends with a woman who’d birthed the child who had caused me so much damn pain. Even now, just seeing her and any talk about Taylor made me so damn emotional. Here I was, supposed to be relaxing and enjoying my magazine along with my fruit, yet I could feel myself becoming emotional.
Two hours later
I was almost to my grandmother’s house when my cellphone rang. It was Mahogany calling me. It brought a big smile on my face to see my girl ca
lling. These days, it was more so me calling her because she had been so busy with the baby lately, which was very understandable because I knew how demanding a newborn baby could be. I talked to her yesterday evening after I left work, and for the first time in a while, I heard happiness in her voice. I didn’t know what changed, but I’ll take it.
Mahogany was scaring me with the way she was talking and moving ever since Jamaria came along. It’s like she had lost all confidence, which was why I was making it my duty to check up on the two of them at least four to five times out of the week. Granted, I knew my girl, so I knew that she wouldn’t snap and do anything crazy to herself or to the baby, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried.
I remember when I first had Vonte. Mannnn, I cried for months at a time. I was a baby my damn self, who didn’t know what the fuck I was doing with a child. My grandmother would let me sit there, cry it out, and figure it out myself before she would step in and take him for me, but the majority of the time, he would have already calmed down by then. The best advice that I was able to give my girl was that it will eventually get better. Those sleepless nights will one day come to a halt. In all seriousness, though, I was praying to God and asking that he didn’t give me a cry baby like Jamaria. I would probably go crazy just like Mahogany.
“What’s up? Where my baby at?” I asked, referring to my goddaughter and my niece. My blood niece at that, since Mahogany was indeed my blood sister. Weird, right?
As weird as it was, it made so much damn sense. Since the day I met Mahogany, I swear we had been compatible. We didn’t look shit alike because we both looked like our moms. I will say that I saw little small features of my dad in her, especially now that I knew she was his child as well. Like, her light brown eyes that she’d gotten from him and his height. God, it just felt so strange even saying this.
“Damn, bitch. I swear, nobody asks about me anymore. I just called my own damn mama, and instead of asking me how I was feeling, she right off the bat wanted to know how Jamaria was feeling. I am human too,” Mahogany said into the phone, making me laugh.
“I told you that all conversation about you stops once there’s a baby involved. Not that we don’t care about you, but we just care about Jamaria more,” I joked.
I could picture her now rolling her eyes and all that other extra shit she liked to do that worked my nerves and probably everybody else’s too.
“Whatever. Where are you? I want to get us out of the house. I’m going to go crazy in this damn house. Jabari just left, and he claimed he’ll be back in another hour, but it never takes him just an hour to go down to that store. Come pick us up. You can just drive my car, and I’ll sit in the back with Jamaria,” she let me know.
“I was going to my grandma’s house. You want to sit over there for a little bit?” I asked as I busted a U-turn to head in the direction of her house.
“Just as long as your daddy isn’t over there, then, of course, I don’t mind,” she said.
I mentally sighed. I hated this situation that we were in. Of course, I sympathized with Mahogany. She had every reason to be mad because, like I said before, she was the one who had gotten hurt in all of this. Well, her and my mother. The only difference is that my mother died before she even got the chance to experience her hurt.
It was never a case of me not being able to sympathize with Mahogany. Maybe I went about it the wrong way at the time, but all I saw was her disrespecting my daddy right in front of me, so I had to speak on it. Me, deciding to speak on it had come across as dismissing her feelings and not caring about her hurt when that wasn’t the case at all.
I was barely even speaking to my daddy these days. There was a time when I made it my business to call him every day of the week, plus I would go over to his house to visit him at least four times of the week, but once the truth had come out, all of that stopped. The disappointment that I had in him was at an all-time high.
“I doubt he’s going to be over there. Be ready because I’ll be knocking on your door in thirty minutes,” I let her know before I ended the phone call.
While I was at a red light, I picked up my phone to text Miami my new plans. Within seconds of me sending the text message, my cell phone started to ring with a phone call from him. With a smile on my face, I answered it from the car. I didn’t even get a chance to say anything before his voice came booming through the speakers.
“How long you think that’s going to take? I got plans for tonight, and I need you home by seven to start getting ready,” he said.
“I didn’t know we had plans. What are they?” I asked as I jumped on the turnpike.
“I just need you home by seven, shorty. That’s all you need to know. How long you think you going to be?” he asked, being really secretive, but I liked it.
I loved surprises, especially when they came from him. I should have known that something was up his sleeve this morning because this man never cooked breakfast. The most he’d do is put the food out for me to cook, but that was it. He’d make me a bowl of cereal at the most. I didn’t mind, though, because he excelled in all other areas, and truth be told, I would much rather cook for him in the first place.
“Baby, it’s going on two now. I’ll be home way before seven,” I let him know.
“Cool. How was your spa? It wasn’t a nigga in there touching on you, was it? I was really specific when I said that I wanted a bitch to handle you,” he said, making me laugh.
“It was a woman, and it was amazing. I want to go back. I ran into Taylor’s mom while I was there,” I let him know.
“And how did that go? She said something to you?” he asked, already going into defense mode, ready to handle something if he needed to.
“Yeah. She just came over to apologize, that’s it. No big deal.”
“You should have told her, fuck her apology. You different from me, shorty, because you actually see the good in people. I’m not like that. If it’s a problem that you got with her daughter, then it’s a problem that you got with her mama too. Then again, don’t be like me, be better than me. She said what she had to say, so that’s that. Oh, I got a gift for you. I’ll show it to you when you get home,” he said, switching the subject.
“A gift from who?” I questioned.
He laughed at my question while I prepared myself for his answer.
“I went to check on my ole boy this morning. The nurse that he had today was pregnant. I started telling her how my girl was pregnant too with our son, and—”
“Our son? Really, Miami? We don’t even know that yet, and could you please stop speaking that into the universe? I want a girl. I’ll cry if I get a boy,” I let him know, and I heard him suck his teeth.
“Ay, chill out. I know it’s a boy. God already told me that. Anyway, she was able to go to the labor and delivery part of the hospital and get you a little gift basket and shit. We already getting gifts and shit. I’m excited as fuck, shorty. You think it’s too soon to buy him a car already? It can just sit in the driveway until he turns sixteen. Ay baby, our lil man gon’ be the shit, you hear me? He going to be fly like his daddy. Charming than a motha fucka too,” he said, making me roll my eyes at his words.
I would much rather he saw things about us having a daughter and not a son.
“As long as I’m the only one you’re being charming to, then that’s all that matters,” I said.
“Always, shorty. I’m going to always charm the fuck out of you. Let me let you pay attention while you on the road. Send me a text or something when you get to your grandma’s house. I love you.”
“Okay. I love you more,” I responded.
“Bullshit.” And with that, he ended the call, making me laugh.
Traffic was fine today getting to Mahogany and Jabari’s house, so in no time, I was whipping my car into their massive circular driveway. I got out of the car with my purse on my shoulder, and I headed over to the front door. They had the Ring doorbell, so I went ahead and rang it. It took about two minutes for me
to finally hear some type of movement, and then finally, the doorknob turned.
I smiled when I saw Mahogany and Jamaria standing on the other side of the door. Mahogany had hand sanitizer right on the table in the foyer, solely for when people walked in and wanted to touch the baby, so I quickly put some on, and I all but grabbed Jamaria out of her mother’s arms.
“You’re soooo beautiful. Do you know that? Ohhh, I love you so much,” I cooed to her beautiful self.
Mahogany had her dressed in a denim Juicy Couture jumper, and a little pair of pink sandals were on her feet. She had a pink headband on her head with a flower that sat at the front. Even with me already pregnant, the baby fever was still so damn real.
“Let me finish packing her diaper bag, then we can go,” Mahogany said, and I followed her until we got into the kitchen.
Jamaria was just gurgling away as I held her and talked to her.
“I got to have a girl so bad. Look at these cute little sandals and this headband. I can’t wait to buy girly stuff, accessories, and do her hair in little ponytails. I told Miami that I would cry if I get a boy again, and I’m so serious,” I let Mahogany know as she made a bottle.
She laughed at what I said while shaking her head.
“I heard Jabari on the phone last night with Miami. He had the phone on speaker, and I was sitting right next to him. Miami said that he was looking up information online to tell if you were carrying a boy, and he said that from all the stuff he read about, you had it. From being stressed out before the baby was even conceived, he said your mood swings are up and down, you had morning sickness and some other stuff. That man is adamant that you’re having his son,” she said, and I waved him off.
“Girl, please. You had every symptom that you just named, and you ended up having a girl. I don’t believe in half the shit that I read on the internet with these fake ass wannabe doctors,” I let her know.
Down With the King of the South 4 Page 8
